u>Introductory remarks

[dear reader, please skip if pushed for time!]

This game had stood out in the calendar as the two sides began the season with a run of victories. A little of the spice was removed from the contest by our defeat at Boston last week, meaning it was 3rd vs 1st rather than a top of the table clash. However, that loss did add extra pressure to the game; a defeat would leave us six points behind St. Ives and would also mean we had gone from winning regularly to losing two on the trot. The famous Vince Lombardi aphorism about winning being habitual is not actually the whole of what he said, which was “Winning is a habit. Unfortunately, so is losing.” Losing is not a habit we want to acquire, so making sure we didn’t follow one defeat with another was essential.

Before launching into a description of the game, a little historical context; for South 3rds simply to be facing St. Ives 3rds is unusual. The Saints have spent most of the last decade in 4NW, with just a single season excursion to 5NW in ‘09-‘10, when they bounced straight back up as runners-up. We, on the other hand, have mostly been playing in 5-7NW in that time. When facing St. Ives club it has usually been against their 4ths or even 5ths. Hell, most of South 2nds contests with St. Ives down the years have come against their 4th Xi! The Saints haven’t particularly regressed in the intervening time. That we were meeting them on even terms shows how far we have developed as a team (and club).

That said, the one previous season when South 3rds and St. Ives 3rds did coincide, the aforementioned ’09-’10 campaign, came at the current high watermark in South 3rds history; 6th place in 5NW. And it so happens that, despite the Saints finishing 2nd in that league against our mid-table spot, we had the better of the matches between the sides, 1-1 at their place and a 4-1 win at the Leys. Given the current St. Ives 3rds side went into the game still boasting a 100% record, there was a fair amount to live up to.

[source for the history is the usual; George’s vast collection of past results]

The Game

After an opening few minutes of sparing, we began to look dangerous and carved out the first clear-cut chance of the match. Tom went on a dribble down the right channel, knocked the ball past the full-back and made a lung bursting effort to get to the ball before it went over the byline; having reached it, he was confronted with attempting to cross whilst on the full-sprint, a difficult skill but one he executed well, firing the ball across the face of goal. Ali, arriving from his wing, made a diving attempt to deflect the cross in, and was unlucky to see the ball come back off the post.

Soon after this, we went ahead, through a fairly similar move. Rob managed to break up some passing by the Saints defence near halfway, getting in to jab the ball past a flat-footed defender. Having rode the defenders robust attempt to play the (long-since gone) ball, Rob was running towards the Saints circle. The ‘keeper came out to meet him, Rob jinked right to go around, but found the angle narrowing too much for a shot to be the high percentage option. Instead, he showed his customary cool and clear thinking in the circle, bringing the ball back onto his reverse side, and crossing to the far post to give Ali a finish into an empty net. That the Barton reverse stick was key was a clear source of irritation for certain St. Ives players; Rob had a spell playing for them a few years back, and often for Saints 3rds specifically. Possibly this was the source of the shout along the lines of “For God’s Sake! Don’t let Rob onto his reverse. We know that is all he has!” Far be it from me to argue, but he has scored some goals front-stick as well, you know. Maybe not as many, but some...

The opening twenty minutes would prove our best spell of the match, on top in terms of territory, possession and chances created. This stemmed from repeatedly winning tackles in the midfield, which was disrupting the Saints ability to outlet from the back. However, when the visitors did cross halfway there were worrying signs of the potency of their front line. The one thing we didn’t need to offer them was a helping hand. Unfortunately we did precisely this when, with our defence in possession and fairly high up the pitch, a square pass was misplaced and got away from its intended target. The Saints player reacted quickest to the loose ball, and one won tackle produced a 2-on-1 break. The execution was clinical, draw the last man, make the pass and fire the clear shot into the far corner. 1-1 and a distressingly soft goal from our point of view, especially as with it the game had changed and our early momentum was lost.

The teams turned around all-square, but as the second half progressed, the Saints begun to look more and more threatening. So it was somewhat against the run of play when we went 2-1 ahead. It came from that age-old source, the Barton reverse. It seems knowing about the threat and being able to stop it are quite separate things. This goal, Rob’s 11thin five league appearances, came after his initial (front-stick) shot had been saved by the Saints ‘keeper. The ball ran free near the left post, and Rob was more alter to the opportunity than the defenders around him, reverse-sweeping with a little lift over the despairing stick of the diving ‘keeper. Such is our confidence in his finishing, I swear some of us were celebrating the goal prior to Rob actually taking the second shot.

However, this was merely an interruption in the visitors best spell of the match. Shahbaz, guesting between the sticks for us, saw a number of shots off, and also had a couple of very close things whistle past his goal. The Saints may even have forced a short in this period (there were hardly any in the match, one or maybe two for the Saints, more for us but probably only five maximum). Rather than shorts what they got was much more influential; two goals to move them ahead for the first time. The equaliser came from a ball that squirted across the circle, with the Saints winger arriving from wide out to sweep it home. The 3-2 goal was the best of the match. A ball into the circle for the centre-forward posted up, who deflected it across into the path of a late arriving runner. Despite this player having to slow from a sprint and balance himself, he was able to launch a first-time reverse stick strike into the roof of Shahbaz’s net.

The game was beginning to get increasingly fractious, especially in the areas containing our front-line and the visitors defence. Our guys were complaining that they were receiving no protection from what they regarded as overly robust tackles that came through the man. The Saints were retorting by suggesting that our front players were causing offensive obstructions, backing into them. Both teams were making the Umpires work for their supper. This all culminated in an incident where James had the ball, back to goal on the top of the circle. As he tried to create space for a reverse stick drive, the Saints defender nicked the ball clear. James determination to get a shot away was such that his swing continued, crashing across the defenders shins. A collective gasp went up, and the incensed defender had to visibly (and sensibly) restrain a desire for retribution. The umpire called James across and to our relief issued only a green card, having deemed the challenge to have been a genuine attempt to play the ball, horribly mistimed, rather than anything malicious. Fortunately, the card appeared to do its job, as the game cleaned up noticeably in the aftermath.

Time was ebbing away, with the visitors holding on to their narrow lead. Either the closeness of the score or the pace of the game was having an effect on their midfield, who began to hold position rather than support their forwards. This meant that when the Saints crossed halfway we had them well outnumbered and were able to turn the ball over with increasing ease and return it to the areas of the pitch where we needed to play.

Pressure was growing, but we were into the final minute before the strain was sufficient to induce a failure. Ali came across the pitch from his wing, and cracked the ball into the circle. It deflected off a defensive foot on the way, but fell within reach of Rob who ‘swiped at it’ (his own words) and got just enough of a connection to take it through the Saints ‘keeper’s dive. Rupert was on hand behind the goalie, to collect the loose ball and push it into the open net... except it took two goes, the first push home having somehow been stopped on the line by a desperate defender, with Rupert forcing the loose ball the final few inches. Scrappy as hell, but it counted for rather a lot. How close we had come to two straight defeats was emphasised by the final whistle coming as the ball was being returned to centre. We had scored with less than ten seconds remaining. *phew*

Results elsewhere in 5NW today were interesting. All 12 sides scored at least 2 goals, with four of the matches finishing all-square. It suggests that, six weeks into the season, everyone is up and running with their game. One of the two matches that produced a decisive outcome saw Louth’s unbeaten record end, which meant our hard-earned point was enough for us to overtake the Lincs Wolds side and move into second place in the Division. Next week we got to Bourne Deeping 4ths. Which isn’t going to be easy, but we do need to start winning again, because another way of putting that Lombardi quote, one that works outside America where they don’t do draws, would be “Winning is a habit. Unfortunately, so is not winning.”